


What A Picture Is Worth (Redone)

by TenshiWarrior



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Strong Language, Underage Smoking, mentions of drug use, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 10:25:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8052727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenshiWarrior/pseuds/TenshiWarrior
Summary: Max Caulfield is just an average teenage girl when she suddenly discovers that she has the power to reverse time, and that a certain classmate of her’s has the power to do this as well. She uses this power to help others but constantly has a recurring nightmare about Arcadia Bay being destroyed by a monstrous tornado, which will come in less than a few days. All the while herself, she is figuring out what happened to a girl who attended Blackwell Academy by the name of Rachel Amber.





	What A Picture Is Worth (Redone)

_ Thunder roared through the skies and the winds were as strong as any turbulence. Young Max Caulfield ran through the storm, drenched from rain. She dodged the oncoming branches and such coming her way as she ran down the path. She was running towards a lighthouse on the hill, almost tripping on some parts of the path.  _

 

_ As she approached the lighthouse, there she saw out in the bay near the small town from where she lived, she saw a monstrous tornado; larger than anything she had ever seen.  _

 

_ She didn’t know where the tornado came from, but she knew the lives of everyone she cared about was soon to be gone by the monster of the tornado.  _

 

_ She wanted to stop it, but she didn’t know if she could.  _

 

_ Suddenly out of nowhere, a boat had flown towards the lighthouse and hit the very top.  _

 

_ It fell towards her and-- _

* * *

 

“Max? Hey Max wake up.” 

 

Young Max Caulfield woke up finding herself in reality. She found herself sitting in the classroom of Mr. Jefferson as she usually did. A teenage boy sat by her side, and was the one that shook her awake. He had short orange dyed hair that had somewhat covered a brown eye, and the other eye was blue green. He wore a long black vest with a grey t-shirt over a gray long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans with red sneakers. 

 

“Ethan…” She whispered, rubbing her eyes, “Did I fall asleep?” 

 

“Yeah, for the 7th time this week and the last.” The boy named Ethan said, “Didn’t you get any sleep last night, or was your roommate keeping you up again?” 

 

“No.” Max whispered, “I stayed up all night talking to Warren.” 

 

Before Ethan could say anything, they heard the teacher Mr. Jefferson who was sitting in the middle of the room clear his throat, getting both of the teens attention. They both looked at him awkwardly. 

 

“Is there something to two of you would like to share with us?” Jefferson had asked the both of them. 

 

“No sir.” Ethan said with an innocent look. 

 

“Sorry.” Max said, “We didn’t mean to interrupt.”

 

“That’s alright.” Jefferson said to them, “Though I strongly advise you to wait for after class.” 

 

Max and Ethan both nodded their heads, and they listened to Jefferson continue with his lecture. 

 

A month had already passed since her classmate Ethan and his sister Miranda arrived at the Blackwell Academy, although for everyone around them it felt like years. From what Max had heard, Ethan had transferred many schools since he was one of the teens that had gotten into more trouble than he asked for. Though despite this he was the talk of the school among the girls, while most of the guys wanna pick fights with him. 

 

Max wasn’t really sure why, but they just do. It doesn’t really matter in the end, since Ethan would always win in a fight, on certain occasions. Most of the time the fights don’t even finish, thanks to the Blackwell Security Guard by the name of David. From what she’s seen, she saw that Ethan rarely doesn’t like to fight, and tries to avoid it as much as possible, but ultimately in the end he ends up engaging in one anyway. What she did find strange though is that he always leaves without a scratch or even a bruise; it’s almost as if he knows what kind of attacks are gonna be thrown at him. 

 

When that’s not happening, which every so often, he just avoids groups entirely; the Vortex Club especially, since he’s not one to get social. He only talks to certain people, like Miranda, Warren, herself, and Kate. The only time he talks to Max herself is when it’s around lunch, or after class and during class, and she’s seen him talk to Kate pretty often, in fact everyday since he’s attended Blackwell. 

 

Max though she talked to Kate every chance she got, she was glad to see that someone else other than her cared for her wellbeing. 

 

With Warren he seems to get along with; he’s even showed him a couple of cool movies and video games.

 

As Jefferson continued with his lecture Ethan leaned over and curiously whispered, “I’m curious Max. Did you manage to finish up that project?” 

 

“Sort of.” Max replied, pushing the photograph over to him so he could see, “And by sort of, I mean what I have right now is crap.” 

 

Ethan looked at her photo; it was of herself standing in front of a wall of photographs. 

 

“What’s the problem?” Ethan said, “I don’t see anything wrong with it.” 

 

“I can just hear the classroom laughing at me right now.” 

 

“Oh come on, look on the bright side.” 

  
  
“What bright side?” 

 

“Your pictures are better than the ones I took for project. So far on the homework's I’ve been getting either a C or a D minus.” 

 

“But I’ve seen your photographs, they’re amazing.” 

 

“Tell that to Jefferson.” 

 

They continued to listen to the lecture from their teacher. It felt as though that he was talking for hours. Half of the people in their didn’t seem to be paying attention. Max wanted to do something to take the mind off of it. She took a camera that was resting at her side. She took the camera from where it sat and pressed a button, and there was a flash that seemed to have gotten Mr. Jefferson's attention as well as the rest of the class. 

 

“Shh.” Mr. Jefferson said to the class, “I believe Max has taken what you kids call, ‘a selfie’. A dumb word for a wonderful photographic. And Max… Has a gift.” 

 

“Now you’ve done it.” Ethan said to her, as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

Mr. Jefferson continued, “Now, as all of you know, since the early 1800s the photo portraits have been popular. Sorry to say that you’re generation was not to first use images as a self expression.” 

 

The students couldn’t help but groan at that. 

 

Mr. Jefferson said with an amused smile, “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” He cleared his throat, “My point is that the portraiture has always been a vital aspect of art and photography for as long as it’s been around.” 

 

He leaned over where he sat, “Now Max. Since you’ve captured everyone's interest, and want to join in on our conversation, perhaps you can tell us the process that gave birth to the first self-portraits?” 

 

Max stammered as she replied, “I did know!... But I kind of forgot…” 

 

“You either know this or you don’t.” Mr. Jefferson said to her, before asking the class, “Is there anybody else here who knows their stuff?” 

 

Ethan raised his hand. 

 

“Yes?” Jefferson said turning his attention to him. 

 

“The first self-portrait was done by Louis Daguerre.” Ethan said putting his hand down, “He was a french painter that created  **_daguerreotype_ ** which is a process that had given portraits sharp a reflective style. Think of it like a mirror.”

 

“Now you’re totally stuck in the retro zone.” Victoria said to Max, “Sad face.” 

 

“Victoria.” Jefferson said to her sternly before turning back to Ethan, “Very good Ethan. You certainly know your stuff.” 

 

“Thank you sir.” Ethan said. 

 

With that, Jefferson continued with his lecture. 

 

Max leaned over to Ethan, “Thanks for that.” 

 

“You owe me later.” Was all Ethan said to her. 

 

Just as Mr. Jefferson finished up his lecture, the bell had rang throughout the halls and rooms; Class was over for the day.

 

Everyone got up from their seats and got their bags. 

 

Mr. Jefferson had announced, “And guys, don’t forget, the deadline to submit a photo for the  **_Everyday Heroes_ ** contest. I’ll fly out with the winner to San Francisco where you’ll be feted by the art world. It’s a great exposure and it can kickstart a career in photography. So Stella, Alyssa, get it together. Taylor don’t hide, I’m still waiting on your entry too. Yes, Max, I see you pretending not to see me, and Ethan stick around, I’d like a word with you after Victoria.” 

 

“Uh… Okay.” Ethan said to his teacher. 

 

When his attention was turned over to Victoria, Ethan let out a groan. 

 

“Great… Just when the day couldn’t get any worse.” He said, now rubbing his eyebrows. 

 

“Ethan, your being paranoid.” Max said, gathering her things, “It’s probably nothing too serious.” 

 

“Too serious… Right.” He said with sarcasm, “I’ll bet my entire money that it’s gonna about that contest. Like hell, I’m gonna participate in that.” 

 

“But you’re pictures are the bomb.” 

 

“Nah, I have no chance in winning. If anything I can tell you who will win, and that’s Miss Kiss-Ass over there.” Of course, Ethan was referring to Victoria. 

 

“As usual.” She said rolling her eyes. 

 

“I’d swear contests like this are rigged as hell.” He said with his arms crossed. 

 

Just than Mr. Jefferson called Max over, “Max! Come over here a second.” 

 

“See you outside or something?” Ethan asked. 

 

“Yeah, see you.” Max said. 

 

She walked over to her teacher, while Ethan went over to talk to Kate like he usually did. 

 

“Max, I’m going to be honest with you.” Mr. Jefferson said, “I’ve never let one photography’s future stars avoid handing in her picture.” 

 

“Do I have to?” Max asked him, “I mean, I don’t think that it’s a big deal.” 

 

Mr. Jefferson let out a sigh, “You’re a better photographer than a liar… Now, I know it’s a drag to hear some old dude lecture you… but life won’t wait for you to play catch up. You’re young, the world is yours, blah, blah, etcetera, right? But you do have a gift.  You have the fever to take images, to frame the world only the way you envision it. The only thing you need to do is share your gift with others. That’s what seperates the artist, from the ametuar.” 

 

All Max did was let out a sigh and proceed to walk out of the classroom. 

 

The minute she shut the door she heard someone call out to her. 

 

“Hey! Max!”

 

Max turned to her friend and roommate. It was a young girl who was a year younger than her with her brown hair tied in low small pigtails and having a pair of blue crystal eyes. She wore a long sleeved hoodie over a baggy short. With it she wore a black skirt with a ripped design of leggings, though her left leg was prosthetic giving her a slight limp as she ran towards Max. 

 

“Hi there Miranda.” Max greeted casually. 

 

The girl named Miranda looked around and saw that a certain someone was missing. 

 

“Did Ethan leave already, or is he in trouble with Mr. Jefferson again?” 

 

Max shook her head, and Miranda sighed with relief at that, “He said he wanted to talk to him, though I’m not sure what though.” 

 

“Well hopefully it’s not another scolding.” Miranda said, “He’s already one to many as it is.” 

 

Both Max and Miranda started to walk down the hall. 

 

Miranda is whole other story compared to Ethan’s. She is social when she wants to be, but does have issues when it comes to a person's trust, at least that’s what Max has been able to gather. She even as a temper that Max herself would like to put it as an angry bull, that scares the crap out of any guy that’s an ass to her, even Nathan Prescott is scared of her.Though Max and her are different, she and her a both friends. Miranda even admitted to her one time that she loves classic movies like Planet of the Apes, unlike her brother, since he’s more into the Alien trilogy.

 

Though the only reason she transferred to Blackwell with Ethan was because she didn’t want to leave him alone. Max would be the first to admit that having Miranda as a roommate wasn’t the best thing, though it was still nice to have company in her lonely room. 

 

“So how did you do on your math test?” Max asked. 

 

“I just passed with the score of B minus.” Miranda said with a smile, “Though that doesn’t stop me from hating on it. You and Ethan are so lucky. You get all the cool teachers in this school.” 

 

Max couldn’t help but chuckle at that, “Cool is a definite understatement.” 

 

“That’s not what I heard say about your photography teacher.” 

 

“What do you mean?” 

 

“I’ve heard conversations about him from the girls to the teachers of this school. He’s a cool teacher they say, he’s an excellent motivator they say! Seriously you and my brother get all the good teachers, while I get the ones who don’t know shit.” 

 

“Aren’t your over analyzing it a bit?” 

 

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. Seriously I don’t know if I could spend another hour in a place like math class or even go through the tests. I mean, it’s not like Greek Mythology class where I’m enjoying every hour of it.” 

 

“Of course, cause your a geek about it.” 

 

“Not as much of a geek as you.” 

 

Soon enough they had just made it to the main hall of the building. “Hey, Miranda.” Max said, “I’m need the restrooms real quick, you can go on ahead.” 

 

“Alright then.” Miranda said going to the exit, “Don’t fall in the toilet or anything.” 

 

“Ha, ha.” Max laughed with sarcasm. 

 

With that Max entered the bathroom; she found it to be empty, which let her sigh with relief. 

 

“ _ Empty, good. _ ” She thought, “ _ Now nobody can see my meltdown, except for me. _ ” 

 

She went over to one of the sinks to wash her face. She thought back to the nightmare she had during the middle of class. During the past few weeks, she often found herself waking up in the middle of the night with the thought of that tornado in her head. In fact every time she closed her eyes, she often found herself on the same path. The lighthouse, the tornado heading to Arcadia, everything. 

 

It was always the same thing and she doesn’t even know why.

 

“The universe is just taunting me…” Max thought aloud as she looked in the mirror, “That nightmare I’ve been having for the past couple of weeks, felt so real. The rain, the tornado, the destruction…. Am I just going crazy?” 

 

Max then took out the photograph that she showed Bill earlier out of her pocket. 

 

“Stop torturing yourself Max. Remember? You have a gift.” 

 

She looked herself in the mirror again and looked back the picture. She let out a sigh and said, “Fuck it.” and she ripped her photograph in two, letting it drift to the ground. 

 

Just as she was about to leave she saw what appeared to be, a small blue butterfly fly from the vents into the restroom. She was in awe of the butterfly as it flew into the corner. 

 

“When a door closes, a window opens… Or something like that.” 

 

With a slow pace she followed the little butterfly into the corner, she saw it resting on the bucket, near janitorial supplies. It was in a perfect shot of a photograph. 

 

“Okay girl, you don’t get a photo op like this everyday.” 

 

Slowly she approached the butterfly so that it wouldn’t be startled. She kneeled and took out her camera. With a flash, she snapped a photograph, and the butterfly flew. 

 

She shook the picture and looked at it as an image cleared. “Perfect!” She said satisfied. 

 

Than she heard the door slam wide open which had startled her. She peaked from the corner and saw that it was Nathan Prescott that had just entered the girls restroom. 

 

“ _ Nathan? _ ” Max thought with anxiety, “ _ What is he doing here? _ ”  

 

Nathan buried his hands in his hair, and went to look in the mirror. 

 

“It’s cool Nathan.” He said to himself, “Don’t freak out, don’t stress… You’re okay, bro. Everything is gonna be fine. Don’t be scared, you own this school, you’re the boss. If I wanted to I can blow it up.” 

 

Someone else had entered the bathroom. It was young teenage girl with her hair dyed blue possessing blue eyes, wearing a beanie hat, and a black jacket. Her necklace was of three bullets with a black string holding it together. She had a skull design on her white tank top shirt, and tattoos on her arm. She wore grey jeans with black boots. 

 

Nathan turned to her, “So what do you want?” 

 

The girl shut the door behind her and went to check the stalls, “I hoped that you checked the perimeter as my step-ass would say.” She said, as she checked the last one, without noticing Max in the corner. 

 

“Now, let’s get down to bidness--” 

 

“I don’t have anything for you.” Nathan said to the girl. 

 

“I know that’s bull shit.” She said, “You got hella cash.” 

 

“That’s not me, that would be my family.” 

 

“Oh boo hoo, poor little rich kid. I know what you’ve been doing. I know that you’re pumping drugs and shit to the kids around here. And I bet you’re respectable family would help me out if I went to them. I can already see the headlines.” 

 

“Leave them out of this bitch!” 

 

“I can tell everyone, not only in this entire school but everyone else in this town that Nathan Prescott is a punk ass who begs like a little girl and talks to himself--!” 

 

To Max’s horror, she saw Nathan suddenly pull out a gun from behind and pointed towards the girl with blue hair. 

 

“You don’t know who the fuck I am!!” Nathan yelled, “You don’t know who you’re messing with!” 

 

The girl backed up; horrified to see him have a gun in his hand. “Wha--Where the hell did you get that?” She stammered, feeling her back hit the wall. 

 

He grabbed the back of her neck and had the gun pointed to her stomach. 

 

“What are you doing!?” She yelled grabbing his wrist; trying all she can to push the gun away from her , “Put it down! Get it away from me!” 

 

“ **SHUT UP!!** ” Nathan yelled, “ **DON’T EVER TELL ME WHAT TO DO!! I’M SO SICK AND TIRED OF EVERYONE TRYING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO! I’M SICK OF PEOPLE TRYING TO CONTROL MY LIFE!** ” 

 

Despite this, the girl glared at him, “You are going to get into more trouble for this than drugs--” 

 

“ **NOBODY WOULD EVER MISS YOUR PUNK ASS NOW WOULD THEY!?** ” 

 

“ **GET THAT GUN AWAY FROM ME PSYCHO!!** ” 

 

The world had just seemed to slow down around them. The girl pushed Nathan away, and he accidentally pulled the trigger on the gun, and the bullet pierced the girl's stomach like a blade. 

 

“ **NO!!** ” Max exclaimed, reaching out to stop her. The minute she had reached out, everything except for her had just seemed to stop. 

 

“Huh? What the?” 

 

Just than everything started to go in reverse, she found herself going through everything that had just happened seemed to be going in reverse, even the way everyone was talking to each other. She found herself flying just a few inches off the ground and couldn’t help but scream as all of this was happening. 

 

Just as it started, everything had stopped, and she found herself at her desk listening to the same lecture that Mr. Jefferson had told the class earlier that day. 

 

“ _ What… The fuck!? _ ” She exclaimed in her head.

  
**_(Opening Theme: Spice and Wolf Opening 1 Theme)_ **


End file.
